What to sow & do in the September kitchen garden

The September kitchen garden is still busy, with some food plants coming to the end of their productive cycle and others finally getting into their stride.

It’s a time for harvesting, tidying up, making preparations for winter foods, and doing some work now so that there’s something to eat next spring during the ‘hungry gap’.

My September kitchen garden diary

We’re still picking lots of tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers and French beans, but as the temperature cools these will start to tail off. Meanwhile, we have a couple of mini pumpkins that are starting to look promising now, after a very slow start.

I’d started off some chard and brassica seedlings, but sadly the local snails have made short work of those. I’m hoping to catch up with another sowing this month, and to get some more winter salads going too.

As a self-confessed fair weather gardener, the rainy weather has been keeping me indoors more recently. However, I’m determined to make a effort to tidy up the garden this month; there’s going to be lots to go into the compost.

Seeds to sow in September

Some of the seeds you can sow this month will give you a quick crop before the cooler weather sets in, and others will provide slow growing crops over winter or start sprouting next spring.

Some of my favourite places to get seeds and small plants include:

• Dobies – great seed catalogue from long-established company
• Marshalls Garden – good variety of seedlings and plants
• RHS – good for ‘Garden Merit’ tried and tested varieties
• Suttons – lots of 99p seeds and handy advice for beginners
• Thompson & Morgan – all kinds of seeds, strawberry plants, fruit bushes etc
• Wilko – the bargain seeds are back, plus lots of multi-buy offers

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Here are the seeds you can sow this month:

• baby leaf salad
• cavolo nero / Tuscan kale
• chard (white stem varieties)
• ‘green manure’ plants
• Italian rabe /raab (quick growing types of greens)
• leaf beet and perpetual spinach
• mustards (hardy types)
• other oriental greens like pak choi, choy sum and mizuna
• radish (last few quick growing summer types)
• rocket
• spinach (short-day varieties)
• spring onions (such as Ishikura, Winter Hardy White Lisbon)
• winter lettuce (such as Valdor, Winter Density)

Check individual seed packets to make sure you’re sowing September varieties, and that they’ll grow in the area you live in.

You can also try starting off a few extra winter salads such as lamb’s lettuce (also called corn salad), some types of endive, and land cress, either outdoors or in an unheated greenhouse. There’s still time to start off most soft herbs for your windowsill, and maybe some indoor salad, baby leaf spinach and pea shoots too.

There are also plenty of garden jobs to be getting on with.

Garden jobs to do in September

1. Planting out in September

• Biennial herb seedlings (chives, parsley)
• Seedlings or clumps of perennial herbs
• Japanese overwintering onion sets
• Other winter onions and shallots
• Garlic cloves
• Spring greens and Spring cabbages

2. Vegetable care in September

• Bring in winter herb plants for use indoors
• Cut asparagus down to ground level and mulch it
• Divide and lift perennial herbs such as mint
• Earth up and/or stake large winter brassicas
• Get rid of potato foliage (haulms) if blight threatens
• Harden pumpkins for 10 days after cutting
• Feed leeks a balanced liquid feed
• Ripen tomatoes indoors if weather turns bad
• Lift Witloof chicory and place in sand for forcing

3. Care of fruit in September

• Cut old summer raspberry and blackberry canes back after fruiting
• Tie in new summer raspberry canes for next year’s crops
• Fit anti-moth grease bands to fruit tree trunks
• Remove mildewed growth from gooseberries
• Finish any remaining summer pruning
• Prepare ground for fruit tree planting

4. General jobs to keep on top of in September

• Be prepared to protect crops if frost threatens
• Sterilise and store used pots, canes, plant labels etc
• Cover areas of bare soil
• Get composting areas ready for lots of new materials
• Keep the garden tidy to aid pest control
• Save seeds

 Enjoying this article? You may also like:

• What to sow & do in an August kitchen garden
• British seasonal food in September (what to pick this month)
• What to sow & do in an October kitchen garden

Are you growing your own fruit, vegetables or herbs this year? What’s happening on your plot at the moment?